The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, JANUARY 6, 1879.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 5, 6 January 1879, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, JANUARY 6, 1879.

On Saturday we published a telegram from the Under Secretary for Public Works to his Worship the Mayor, informing him that a letter had been posted to him in reply to his asking for information regarding the construction of the railway beyond Foxhitl. This morning the letter itself was received,' and the following is a copy of it: — Public Works Office, Wellington, 2nd January, 1879 Sir,— l am directed by the Hon. the Minister for Public Work3 to inform you, in reply to yonr letter of the I2th December, that the section of railway being prepared for advertising in February next is the one that is provided for in the ordinary vote, and is about four to five miles long, but the En-gineer-in -Charge has instructions to prepare a further section out of the Amberley to Cook's Strait vote. Trusting this will be satisfactory to you I have, &c, ' Joiin Knowles, Under Secretary for „ m Public Works. His Worship the Mayor, Nelson. " Trusting this will be satisfactory !" What will be satisfactory? Why, the intimation that the extension of the line beyond Bell Grove is to be indefinitely postponed, for this is without doubt the meaning of the' words "the Engineer has instructions to prepare a further section out of the Amberley to Cook's Strait vote." As to when it is to be prepared we are told nothing, nor is there any information with Tegard to ]he length of the section, but the implication is that the ten miles is to be cut up into smaller lots, and, even if anything is to be done, that one of these miniature sections is to be tendered for at a time, with the intention no doubt of keeping the people of Nelson quiet, and preventing them from being too importunate. But this will not do. Some more definite understanding must be arrived at, and if necessary a deputation should again be despatched to Wellington to meet the Miuister face to face, and obtain from him some less evasive reply than that which he has already vouchsafed, in the hope that it will prove " satisfactory."' '